Review: City-smart, easy on wallet

At the 2001 Detroit auto show, before he was pulled back into the family Business like the movie mobster Michael Corleone, General Motors' godfather-for-hire, Robert A. Lutz, gravely assessed the Design studies on display: "A whole family of angry kitchen appliances, demented toasters, furious bread machines and vengeful trash compactors."

Lutz, 80, is now retired from GM, again. But I thought of him when I drove the new Chevrolet Spark: Lutz, your toast is served. With a nice coating of green marmalade.

Yes, the Spark looks as though it's about to spit a load of brioche from its roof. But as strange as this mini city car may appear, the oddest thing about the Spark is the Chevy bow tie that gleams from its grille and hatch.

Lutz, long associated with steroidal specials like the Dodge Viper, once pronounced global warming a "total crock." Yet the Berkeley-educated former Marine fighter pilot – always a blend of contradictions – was soon shepherding the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid to production, saying the electrification of the automobile was inevitable.

This Spark is not battery-powered, not yet, though the model will lead GM's electric car efforts with a low-volume, limited-market edition set to arrive next year. But the Spark's name, styling and park-anywhere size did lead one Manhattan onlooker to assume that a cache of batteries was on board.

Whether a gasoline version or electric, the Spark also suggests a road to Damascus experience for GM. The company's obsession with paramilitary Hummers and other expressions of SUV overkill nearly brought it to ruin when fuel prices ran up and buyers ran away.

The Spark also illuminates GM's greater global focus, having been designed, engineered and built in Korea. The littlest Chevy, which replaces the larger Aveo, has been on sale internationally since 2009.

This demented toaster is barely larger than a breadbox: 14 inches shorter than Chevy's Sonic hatchback and roughly 2 inches shorter than a Mini Cooper. Although a Mini or a Fiat 500 is sexier, sportier and much more expensive than the Spark, neither has a back seat nearly as habitable.

The Spark is ultra-affordable, starting at $12,995, rising to $15,795 for the line-topping 2LT, and it never feels cheap or chintzy. That's especially true of the interior, which mimics style leaders like the Mini with swoopy shapes, body-color trim and an instrument pod that sprouts from the steering column.

My test car was laden with standard features that included stability control, 10 air bags, Bluetooth, cruise control, keyless entry and a leather-clad steering wheel with audio and phone buttons.

But I confess to feeling more silly than edgy at the wheel of this narrow, squashed-face carnival buggy, even as it showed me a responsible 42 mpg on the highway and about 37 mpg overall.

The green paint didn't improve my self-esteem, either. Chevy calls it Jalapeno, but I'd never touch tongue to any chili with this irradiated shade.

But then the Spark isn't aimed at people like me, who thought '80s hatchbacks were small. Instead, Chevy seems convinced that millennials, the much-sought demographic segment ranging in age from about 16 to 31, are the Spark's natural audience.

To that youthful end, the Spark's cabin is rich with connected Technology that may well make its way to top luxury models. Its Chevrolet MyLink system integrates all its functions – phone, music, video and navigation – through an iPhone or Android phone. There's not even a slot for CDs.

It's all managed, with reasonable smoothness, through a passive 7-inch display screen that doesn't require navigation or other systems to be embedded in the dashboard. Those systems can add thousands of dollars to the window sticker, and their maps and other features can quickly grow obsolete. If only the Spark drove as well as it dialed calls or summoned Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds from the bowels of, um, an iPhone.

The barely 2,200-pound microcar gets the job done on city or suburban streets for which it's intended. There's decent bump control and just enough urge to keep up with traffic, despite a 0-60 mph time well into the double digits.

My test car's 5-speed manual shifter, roughly the length of a croquet mallet, would have been at home in a school bus. A 4-speed automatic is available for $925, though some critics have found it douses the Spark's already tepid acceleration.

As speeds increase, the Spark's short wheelbase, underdamped suspension and meager power make for rougher going. Road imperfections crashed and boomed in the high-decibel cabin.

The car itself feels solid and well-built. But it charted a wobbly highway course; there's none of the fun and nimbleness you'd prefer in such a tiny car. Consider the Spark a city-centric econobox – with a clever bonus box inside for iPhone or Android users.